Vault of Glass
by NobleMETA
Summary: ...but if I were to be honest, standing at the bottom of this hill on Venus, looking up at the entrance to the vault, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I can tell that we all are, myself and the five that stand with me, but we are a team, we're friends, and we won't fall so easily.-A RWBYxDestiny Crossover (where there will be an actual story).
1. Prologue

When I first heard about the vault, I didn't know what to expect from it. The archive that I searched from the Collective didn't give me that much detail. Thankfully Weiss was able to comb through information that the Warlocks had accumulated over the years, a Hunter like me wouldn't be able to decipher much of the complex information. We learned quite a bit about what to expect, but if I were to be honest, standing at the bottom of this hill on Venus, looking up at the entrance to the vault, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I can tell that we all are, myself and the five that stand with me, but we are a team, we're friends, and we won't fall so easily.

Those who control the vault right now, our enemies in the battle to come, are the Vex. They are terrible creatures that are a twisted mixture of machine and the organic mind. Countless numbers dwelled inside of the vault, just waiting for us to come and stake our claim to victory. And they will be ready, the advantage theirs, the darkness they worship waiting to drain the light from our souls.

There wasn't much that could be said about the vault itself, only the legend of a famous Titan, Kabr the legion-less. Apparently he journeyed inside of the vault alone in order to face the Vex that claimed rightful domain over it's contents. Whatever happened to him down in that which he entered, no one knows, but now it was our turn to take on the terrors that awaited us within the Vault of Glass.

My name is Ruby Rose, and this is my story.

* * *

 **AN: A Prologue of what is to come from this story. Feel free to ask questions about it, and I'll answer them as best as I can without spoiling anything.  
**

 **-Noble**


	2. A place they called

2 weeks prior

Ruby could sense the history that she was walking through as she made her way further down into the Ishtar Collective's old Archive. Despite having her helmet on, she could feel years worth of history hang in the air, leaving a stillness that would frighten most men. Ruby however, wasn't like most men or women, she was nothing like them at all.

Ruby was known as a Guardian, one of the warriors that work to defend humanities last city on earth. A single Guardian was normally a force to be reckoned with, and there were many Guardians working to bring humanity back to the glory that it was once at, before the collapse. While she wasn't as battle hardened and strong as the Titans, or as smart and philosophical as the Warlocks, she took on the mantle of a Hunter, a suave warrior that was capable of bringing armies to their knees, without even being seen. Between those who were Titans, those who became Warlocks, and those that learned the ways of the Hunters, the Guardians were a dangerous force that could not be taken likely.

Ruby looked down at her gun, known to many as Patience and Time. She inherited this weapon from the man who taught her all she needed to know about being a Hunter, her Uncle Qrow. If it wasn't for his training, she didn't know how long it would've been that she had lasted out there in the dangerous worlds.

Pulling the empty magazine out, Ruby let the now spent shell casings fall to the ground. Getting into the archive wasn't easy, as the alien race known to all as the Fallen had been working to crack open the archive for quite some time now. The Fallen were a race of nomadic aliens that often took to pirating and scavenging the planets they went to. With four arms and four eyes, they were frightening to anyone who wasn't a Guardian, though the lowest form of Fallen, known as a Dreg, were not given the right to grow their lower arms until they were proved to be worthy.

Ruby judged by the color of the armor that they wore, which was a dark blue, that the group of Fallen she tangled with belonged to the House of Winter, one of the many clans within the race. Fortunately, the Dregs, the upper ranks known as Vandals, their robotic drones which they called Shanks, and even a Servitor, which was a floating, spherical Fallen were not enough to stop Ruby from making her way into the archive.

"Unbelievable," Ruby's ghost said. The Ghosts were an Artificial Intelligence that worked with the Guardians, each Guardian's ghost being unique to them. Ruby listened to what her ghost had to say, hearing the gruff deep voice whisper into her ear. "The Archive's power is still partially activated."

"How long do you think it was sitting like this?" Ruby asked, hoping her ghost could look up the information for her.

"I'm not sure, probably since the collective was here," Ruby's ghost replied. She liked to call him Qrow, in memory of her old teacher, something the ghost decided to just get used to. "Imagine if they weren't-"

"Welcome Dr. Shim," A voice boomed through the entire room, the main computer by what Ruby could tell. "Please enter your security clearance code."

"Dr. Shim?" Qrow asked, not sure what the computer meant by that. "Never mind that, let's hit that terminal up ahead."

"I got a bad feeling about this," Ruby said to herself as she walked towards the main terminal. Her ghost materialized in front of her and started to interact with the terminal.

"Thank you, Dr. Shim," The computer said after a moment. "Shall I begin correlation of Vex Mind Core samples?"

"So polite," Qrow replied before addressing Ruby. "Let's see what they've got."

Before they could go any further with the research, trouble reared its ugly head. "Dr. Shim, security breach detected-intruders! Initiate Protocol 19." The computer urgently said.

"Fallen, they've followed us in!" Qrow said to Ruby, who was already springing into action.

Ruby pulled out Patience and Time and took aim down at the doorway she herself came through. ' _How could I be so stupid to forget that they would follow me in?_ ' Ruby thought to herself as she fired off a round at one of the Fallen Vandals that were coming in. After she took the shot, her weapon activated a special ability that was unique to it, and she became invisible. Taking this time to line up another shot, she took the head off of another Vandal before moving from her position, closer to where the action was.

Though her weapon of choice was her sniper rifle, she always made sure to carry with her a hand cannon for moments when her rifle wouldn't do her any good. While she ran forth, Ruby slung her rifle across her back, letting it rest over the red cloak she wore, and pulled the hand cannon off of the side, a gift from the Vanguard, which were the ones who led the Guardians. She took a couple of shots at those in front of her and watched them fall, a white mist appearing to rise up from where their heads used to be. Before reloading her pistol, she took one of the many knives she held with her and threw it at a remaining Vandal, striking it in between the eyes.

As the knife struck, the lights that were on when Ruby came in were shut down, and the computers voice came back on. "Remote hub failure. Routing disrupted."

"Qrow, any explanation?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know," Qrow went on to explain. "They must have a Servitor feeding off the power, or something like that."

Looking all around the room, Ruby saw what she was looking for, a Servitor surrounded by a pack of Dregs. With her culprit found, Ruby pulled out her rifle and took a few shots at the Dregs that surrounded the Servitor, leaving it all alone and at her mercy. Switching back to her hand cannon, she reloaded it, before firing everything she had at the Servitor, destroying it in the process. As she ran over to let Qrow repair the conduit that was damaged, she barely had enough time to see the telltale signs of a cloaked Vandal running right at her, a sword in each of it's four arms. The Vandal tackled Ruby to the ground and was ready to kill her, but Ruby had brought a knife up and into its chest just in time to save her own skin.

"That was a little too close," Ruby said as she threw the body off of her. Looking down, she noticed that her armor, which glistened with a wolf's head made of gold across her chestplate, was still clean, meaning that none of the blood from the Vandal had gotten onto her. "What I'd kill to have Yang with me right now."

Despite that, she finished running over to the conduit and let Qrow get to work on the repairs. "They made a mess here, but I got this," Qrow said as he began to work on repairing the conduit. "Dammit no! Ruby, they're tapping somewhere else!"

Ruby wasn't sure where exactly the Servitor could be, but it had to be around there somewhere. Thinking carefully, Ruby realized that there was an upper balcony of catwalks that she hadn't checked yet. Before she walked up the nearby flight of stairs, she threw a grenade up onto the catwalk where she thought she saw a Vandal. Upon impacting the catwalk, the grenade broke into a multitude of smaller pieces. Because of where she threw it, the smaller pieces tracked all of the Fallen that were surrounding the grenade when it landed, killing some and injuring a few others.

Running up the stairs, Ruby pulled Patience and Time back out and slid into a crouched position at the end of the walkway, noticing that the Fallen were at the other end with the Servitor. As with the last group, she opened fire on them, killing everything including the Servitor. With nothing blocking her pathway, Ruby ran over to the other conduit and let Qrow begin to work on the repairs.

"I'll have it back together quick," Qrow said to Ruby. "There's still Fallen in here though, so you should take them out."

Ruby noticed that the main terminal was surrounded by the last of the Fallen scavengers that entered the Archive, along with what Ruby believed to be one of their Barons, a Fallen that was even more powerful and a higher rank than the Vandals. She saw some of the Dregs come up to meet her, and they met a swift end thanks to a combination of her hand cannon and throwing knives.

As she moved closer to the terminal, she jumped off of a ledge and dropped to the floor that the terminal rested on. Channeling the light within her, she unleashed its power, and a golden gun appeared in her hands. She took her first shot at a group of dregs, the one she hit exploding in a burst of solar energy, and with only the Baron and a few Vandals left, Ruby turned the golden gun on the Baron, firing the remaining two shots that she generated at the Baron, destroying the beast and any unfortunate Vandal that was next to him.

With their Baron dead, the Vandals knew the fight was lost, and so they turned and retreated, leaving Ruby once again alone in the archive.

"Well, now that we're done with that," Qrow said as he floated over to Ruby. "Let's get back to the archive. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to gather, and the Cryptarchs will want to see all of this."

"They better thank me for this," Ruby grumbled.

"I'm sure that it'll be worth it," Qrow replied. Once they reached the terminal, he began to pull as much of the information as he could from the archive, restoring the lights as well. "This Archive is amazing-pathways to other galaxies, mappings of a Vex underworld-a place they called...the Vault of Glass. Hopefully the Cryptarch can make sense of it. I'll let him know we found it."

"Wait, what was that last one?" Ruby asked after a few moments of deliberation.

"The Vault of Glass?"

"Yeah that, do you know anything about that?" Ruby asked, concern rising in her tone.

"Only myths before now, and the Cryptarchs or the Warlocks will be able to make more sense of this than I would right now, too much info to analyze in a short time. Why, do you think something bad is going to happen because of this place?"

"I just got this really bad feeling, that this Vault is going to cause so much trouble," Ruby said as she looked back out onto the rest of the archive. "Qrow, do you know what it is that Weiss is doing right now, or where she is?"

"Give me a second or two and I'll see where her ghost is," Qrow answered.

Ruby always considered Weiss to be her best friend, and acted as such around her. While the two of them had some major differences to each other, they managed to work together well, and befriended each other after taking the time to learn about each other. Ruby would even go so far as to say that she was attracted to Weiss, though she would never say that out loud to anyone.

"Got it," Qrow speaking to Ruby broke the black and red haired girl out of her train of thought. "Looks like she's with a fireteam on the Moon right now."

"The Moon? But that's where the Hive are," Ruby said, looking at Qrow, confused as to why Weiss would be where she was. "Do you know what she's doing?"

"Apparently her Ghost quickly sent a message to me saying that the Cryptarchs asked them to do some work for them as well," Qrow replied. "I'll let you know when she has a chance to talk to us, apparently they're fighting through the Hive right now, though from what I was told, you don't need to worry about her just yet."

"Inform Weiss' ghost that when Weiss is finished with what she is doing that she needs to contact me right at that moment," Ruby said as she watched the data flow through the terminal. "Something's going on and I got a bad feeling that we'll need to stop it somehow."

* * *

Weiss couldn't even fathom what was resting in front of her. The sword of Crota, its blade embedded into the ground, was right in front of her. Before her sat one of the Hive's greatest weapons in existence, the sword of the Hive's Prince Crota, the son of Oryx, the being that the Hive to be their god, and now Weiss was looking at the blade and saw the marvel of the weapon itself, as well as just how many Guardians fell to this singular blade.

When the Guardians gave up the Moon to the Hive, it wasn't without any attempts to reclaim it. Guardians of the past fought tooth and nail to bring the Hive to its knees, but it was not enough to stop them. The darkness within the Hive spawn was great, and it had claimed the light from so many who stood against it, the sword that was in front of her taking those lives.

The Hive were terribly dark creatures, grotesque in nature and vast in number. There were many types of Hive as well, the armorless, disfigured swarm of Thralls, the foot soldiers in the Acolytes, the fierce warriors known as Knights, the manipulators of darkness called Wizards, and the giant war beasts of the Ogres. Each of the Hive serves a being called Crota, someone who is considered a god. Crota is a Hive Prince taking the form of a Knight, and the son of Oryx, the true master behind everything. With Crota leading the Hive against the Guardians when they tried to reclaim the moon, there were few Guardians that returned.

That is why the sword was important, because not only was it a powerful weapon used against the Guardians, but also a symbol of the Hive's success in claiming the moon for their master. Weiss knew that she needed to destroy this sword, for many reasons. It was why Weiss was here today, to destroy the sword of Crota.

"Winter," Weiss called out to her ghost, which appeared before her when she called.

"Yes Weiss?" Winter asked with her cool soothing voice.

"How do you suppose I kill the Swarm Princes?" Weiss then asked of Winter.

"Grab the sword, that should lure them out," Winter replied. "From there, I'd say just use their own sword against them, imagine the irony in that, the Swarm Princes, killed by the very sword they themselves created."

"Imagine that," Weiss said as she rolled her eyes. Before grabbing the sword, she turned to the two young Guardians that went with her, under the request of the Cryptarch. "You two, stay alert. Remember to work together or else the Hive will drain your light. Don't let them swarm you and you should be fine. As long as we work together, we'll make it out of here with a great story to tell."

The two nodded at Weiss, raising their auto rifles and preparing themselves for the swarm that was coming. Weiss then walked up and grabbed the sword and pulled it out of the ground, immediately feeling the darkness that the sword was bathed in trying to seep into her.

"Careful, its power is dark," Winter said as the first of the Hive appeared through the doors and up from the ground.

"You think?" Weiss snarked back, she already knew to be careful, and Winter telling her that wasn't news to her. She readied the sword and took swing at the Hive, slicing through any Hive that her two companions didn't eliminate already. The first wave being mere Thralls meant they went down fairly easy, but Weiss knew that this was just the beginning of their fight. She noticed that other doors around the room they were in were starting to open, and a combination of Thralls and Acolytes appeared from the dark halls.

She let instinct take over and swung the sword, cleaving through anything that stood against her. With how easily the Hive were falling to the sword, Weiss figured that Winter's comment on the irony of using the Hive's sword to kill them was actually well thought out. Moving up the stairs along the side of the room, she rushed along the upper balcony, before jumping the gap between the two sides of the balcony, and returning down the other side of the stairs after eliminating the Hive that were above them. That was when she felt the room start to shake.

"Lots of movement all around us," Winter cut in, her tone sounding desperate and a little bit worried, which didn't do much to help Weiss. "The Princes are coming for the sword!"

Just like that, the first Prince appeared from the ground in front of Weiss. One of Weiss' companions moved to the upper balcony, while the other stayed down in the middle of the room on the ground floor. Weiss however, was moving back and forth across the room, attacking the Prince with the sword from multiple sides. After a lot of hits with the sword, the first Prince finally fell, boosting Weiss and the rest of her fireteam's confidence.

At that point, more Hive started to show up, surrounding Weiss and her fireteam. With the second Swarm Prince showing up, Weiss and her team were forced to take the defensive. Weiss threw out a grenade, which exploded and split into three separate bolts of void energy that seeked out their targets. Still, Weiss was forced to run and avoid the Hive that wanted her death.

It was then that she noticed that the rest of her team was in a bad situation, one was holding back a Thrall that was thrashing at her, the other, was being chased by Thralls and Acolytes. Noticing that one was across the balcony, she formulated a plan in her head on the fly, the swift intelligence she possessed as a Warlock coming into play. With a hopefully useful solution available, she leapt into action.

First, Weiss leaped up towards the other platform and threw the sword at the Thrall that was trying to claw at her teammate, slicing the beast in half. While still in the air, she called upon all the energy she could and focused it into one powerful attack. Using her right hand, she accumulated all that energy and released it into a single Nova Bomb that traveled at incredible speed, launching it right behind her other teammate and catching many of the Hive that were chasing him. Once she landed, she whipped out her hand cannon, a gun often referred to as The Last Word, and quickly shot the three Thralls that tried to run towards her and her teammate. Soon after that, she set her pistol away and turned to her teammate.

"Any injuries?" She asked.

"None that I can see right now, though," Weiss' teammate said as she returned her attention back to shooting at the Hive. "I think it'd be better if we were to wait until afterwards to ask about that, huh Weiss?"

"Fine, just be careful Lyra, I don't need you getting killed on me," Weiss replied as she grasped the sword once again. Looking down at her other teammate, Weiss was glad to see that he was doing just fine, having reached cover in the back of the room and taking down everything that was in his way. Jumping down into the middle of the Hive, she used the sword to unleash an electrical burst that zapped all the Hive surrounding her. From there she took a quick swing around her to take out any stragglers, leaving only the second Prince to defend itself. Between the combination of Weiss using the sword and her teammates shooting at the prince, the dark creature went down quickly.

Based on the number that appeared after the second prince fell, Weiss could tell that the fight was almost over, and the next prince came out to greet her. With the sword in her hands, and her fireteam behind her, she was more than ready to take the prince on. Any Hive that stood with the prince went down quickly, and soon after it, the combined power of Weiss' team took the prince down.

That was when the sword imploded on itself, disappearing with a loud bang. The disappearance of the sword startled Weiss, but the swords disappearance triggered another affect. Not a moment after Weiss watched the sword destroy itself, she suddenly started to have a vision in her head.

 _She watched as a lone figure stood on a platform in a lake, surrounded by darkness. The figured turned what looked to be a sword and suddenly the platform started to glow with a dark green fire, the three eyes of the figure staring right at Weiss and thousands of more dark eyes appeared in the darkness behind him. "You will all suffer my wrath!"_

The vision alone sent Weiss down to her knees, her hands clenching her head as the vision burned it's way into her memory. She just knew who it was that stood on that platform, and if this were to come to pass, then they were in a world of trouble.

It wasn't until her ghost spoke, that she finally realized where she was exactly. They were within the Hive's sanctuary, within the Temple of Crota, and they just destroyed the sword of the dark prince himself.

"The sword is gone, just like that, it destroyed itself," Winter said, grabbing Weiss' attention. "They say that was one of the most powerful weapons the Hive ever wielded against us."

"I'm well aware of that Winter," Weiss replied being much shorter than usual.

"You ok?"

Weiss thought about talking with Winter about what it was that she saw, maybe Winter would be able to help her figure out what it meant. Either way though, now wasn't the time to say anything, even if she did want to say so. "I'm fine, lets just get going. The Cryptarchs won't believe this."

As Weiss led her team out of the temple, she saw Winter rematerialize in front of her. "I wanted to tell you about this earlier, but it was better left till now since we just went through all of that. Ruby wants you to get in contact with her, something important that she needs you to hear about."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Weiss asked as she moved to a more private area nearby. The rest of her team knew that they didn't need to be involved in the conversation, so they decided to just take watch until she was ready to continue on her way.

By the time Weiss was ready to speak with Ruby, she nodded to Winter, who sent out the signal to Ruby. Weiss didn't have to wait that long for Ruby to answer though, the dolt as she liked to call her, always seemed to answer her quickly. Weiss didn't want to admit it, but she felt so much better any time she heard Ruby's voice.

"Hey, Weiss, how goes your job?" Ruby asked.

"Did alright, though I know that we'll have time to talk about that later," Weiss said. As much as she loved speaking with Ruby, she wasn't feeling the best right now and so she needed to just hurry up so she can get back to her home in the city. "You needed me for something?"

"Well, I think we have a problem, something bigger than all of us," Ruby replied. Weiss was now intrigued by what it was that Ruby wanted to tell her, something must be going on if she is saying what she is saying.

"Let me ask you something, Weiss, have you ever heard of the Vault of Glass?"

* * *

 **AN: Oh shit, things are starting to build. I'm super excited to write this, and I plan on doing this in a way that makes it out to be an actual story. But, before I do that, a couple of things I wish to address.**

 **First, Ruby is a Gunslinger, and Weiss is a Voidwalker (as was said in the chapter). Second, each of the characters is going to have their own personal ghost, and some of them are going to give them a unique name (all of the main characters will at least). Third, the name Lyra comes form Shadow Nightblade's Snow Fox's Struggle, a great read so go check that out as well. Lastly, there is artwork for this so far, and you can find it on my tumblr page, or on my fiancee's deviant art account (sylverlyning67) so go check that out.**

 **Thanks for reading this and I hope I'm making this story a good read for you guys.**


	3. Strike the Match

' _Well, we made it this far, might as well kill this thing._ '

It was a thought that crossed through Blake's mind as she walked up to the cell that held their target. There were bodies of Fallen and the organic machines of the Vex spewed all around the two Guardians. They fought long and hard to get to this point, and there was no way they were about to turn around now, not when they had a job to do.

Blake looked over to her partner, the one person who has been by her side for the past few years. Even though there was a helmet over both of their heads, they needed to breathe normally and protect their heads after all, she could see the smile on her blonde haired friend's face, the lilac eyes shining with anticipation at a most worthy challenge. She knew that Yang was looking forward to this, but Blake still had some reservations about what they were going to attempt.

To this day, no one knows why Yang ended up becoming a Warlock, she didn't show the same intelligence as Weiss, and she was often brash and looking for a fight. Still, Yang was one of the Warlocks, though she often acted like a weird combination of a Titan and a Hunter. It was what she became when she started her journey, the path not her own to chose, but hers to follow. She wore her bond with pride, showing that she was capable of utilizing her powers for good, and to advance the light against the darkness.

Blake herself was a Hunter, though instead of the traditional cloak a Hunter wore, she simply elected for a jet black scarf around her neck, believing that the cloak would do nothing more than help her get killed somehow. Her weapon, infamously known as Red Death, was held on her shoulder, her hand holding it up. Often she got weird looks from other Guardians because of what she used, but she wasn't surprised by any of it at all. Her weapon did have a dark reputation to it after all, for it was known among the Guardians as the 'Guardian Killer', a weapon forged by a mad Guardian that turned against their brothers and sisters. Despite her choice in weapon and her particular attitude on things, many Guardians still respected her and even a small few considered her a friend.

Yang was of course, one of those people, something else the more traditional Warlocks berated her about. They saw Yang as rash and unrefined, though the Warlock mentor, Ikora Rey, saw the potential in her for great things. Through many trials and tests, Ikora Rey forged Yang into a honed warrior, and as a result, she gave Yang her old weapon, the shotgun known as Invective. With this beast by her side, Yang became even greater than when she began her journey, and with Blake as her partner in just about everything, they were nearly unstoppable.

Of course, they had their fair share of problems, all Guardians faced difficulty at one point or another. As part of an agreement to gain the tools they needed to take down a powerful Fallen Captain, Blake and Yang swore service to the Queen of the Awoken, a deal in which if they Queen needed them for a task, they would answer. If they were away doing other business when the Queen called, she would wait for them to return and then give them the task as soon as they were able to.

It's what led them to where they were at that moment.

"You sure this is a good idea?"

Blake's ghost, whom she called Adam, had asked her. Blake recalled the way that they were given this task, how the Queen left a message for them with the Vanguard, making light of their little arrangement with them.

' _Those Fallen in the Ishtar Sink on Venus…story is they raided the Prison of Elders in the Reef, got an Archon Priest. The Queen's bounty is high, so we know it's powerful. We need to hunt this thing down before they fully restore its soul.' Blake heard Cayde-6 say to her and Yang. Nodding when they got confirmation of their quest, Cayde called to her before she could take a step towards the hanger. 'Don't know why I got this message from the Queen herself, or why in that message, she asked for you two specifically to go on this mission. If you made a deal with the Queen I won't question it, just remember that you're still a Guardian, and that defending this city and its city are still important. Now I'm not going to say that this is something we can let the Awoken handle, but if you're gonna go out there, just remember to be careful. Archon Priests are powerful, and if this one was freed from the Prison of Elders, you know it's tougher than most. Just be careful that the Queen doesn't get you killed is all._ '

"Blake?" Adam asked her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"If it was a good idea, then someone else would be doing this instead of us, now wouldn't they?" Blake replied to Adam. She turned to Yang and gave her the signal to release the Archon Priest from it's captivity. The Archon's were intermediaries between the Servitors of the Fallen, and the Kell, which was what the Fallen called their leader, of each Fallen House.

With the pod beginning to open up, Blake and Yang moved back from the center of the cliffside they were on, and moved behind some rocks along the back. They watched as the Archon Priest climbed out of the pod and dropped down onto the platform in front of him. The sheer size of this Fallen alone sent a look of concern through Blake and Yang, but the two of them knew they had to stand up to him and fight. Making her movements quick, Blake popped up and aimed Red Death right at the Archon, and pulled the trigger, letting a burst of three bullets fire from the weapon, and strike her foe.

It didn't do much to damage the priest, but it was a start, Yang herself popped up as well, but with an auto rifle in her hands instead of Invective. Blake figured that Yang must've known getting up close to use her weapon wasn't a smart idea, and that the attempt to do so would only get her killed. The two of them together managed to take a small chunk of damage from the priest, but they both realized that it would take a lot more than that to kill it.

Before they could take fire again, Blake saw that some Shanks were coming up towards them, and so she threw a grenade at them. Once the grenade landed, it stayed still for a second, before shooting a burst of lightning out towards one of the Shanks, which then shot out towards another, and then again twice more behind it. With four Shanks destroyed by her grenade, it gave Blake and Yang some breathing room, before a Servitor came up to greet them.

Yang immediately pulled Invective out and charged at the Servitor, opening fire with her beast and emptying four shots into it. Those four shots were enough to destroy the servitor, and with another chance to recover, Yang reloaded her shotgun, watching as all the shots she had just unleashed recreated themselves with the rest of her ammo. That was the unique perk of having Invective, it recreated it's own ammo to use so that the wielder never ran out when he or she needed it. Though it could only create a small number at a time, it was enough for Yang to make it useful.

When they turned to continue their fight against the priest, Blake and Yang found that the priest had teleported closer to them. With the distance between them shortened, it forced the pair to move into a different position, with the two of them firing back at the priest while they moved. Yang didn't bother switching away from her shotgun, because when they moved to a different position, they found that there were more Shanks in their way. Yang pushed forward with her palm, sending a burst of energy right at the Shank, but this burst was infused with flame, and when the flame struck the Shank, Yang suddenly generated a second shield that protected her. Blake had pulled out her sidearm as well, using it to fire at any Shanks Yang had missed before she reloaded Red Death.

Blake looked over to Yang, and the two of them knew they had to split up. While Yang did what she could to distract the priest, Blake crouched down and knelt still for a few moments, before becoming completely invisible. With no one able to see her, she ran towards the priest from behind and leapt at it's back, grabbing onto the priest around it's neck. She thrusted her knife into the priest repeatedly until she knew that the priest was about to grab her. With a push off of the priests back, Blake leapt backwards a few feet, but then pushed herself forward with her knife out to perform a blink strike, and turning invisible immediately upon striking her foe.

Blake's attack distracted the priest enough for Yang to get up close with Invective and fire off a couple rounds into him, reloading as Blake leapt into the air. Yang was able to get off two more shots before she was forced to retreat, along with Blake, because the priest brought his foot up to slam it into the ground and cause a mini quake beneath it's foot. Blake was able to get away easily, but Yang on the other hand was thrown back onto the ground as she leapt away to safety.

That was when Blake noticed that more Fallen had shown up. Channeling her energy, Blake pulled out her knife, and summoned a wave of arc energy around her. Running past the priest, she leapt for the fallen newcomers and sliced at them with her knife. Just the simplest of touches with her blade sent scores of arc energy through the Fallen bodies, turning them to dust in less than a second. Blake's actions gave Yang the time she needed to get back up and help her take down even more fallen. With a grenade, Yang helped Blake eliminate the remaining Fallen that showed up, allowing them to return their attention to the priest itself.

The pair knew that they had to take the priest down soon, and so they sprung into action. Blake moved between a couple of cave openings that looked over the central platform, while Yang ran down and around the priest from below her. When Yang was running, Blake was firing upon the priest, so that its attention was off of Yang. Once Yang was in a suitable position, she then opened fire on the priest, doing damage to it and drawing the attention off of Blake. It was a risky play, but the two of them knew what the other would do, years of working together helped them solidify their teamwork down to a tee.

Yang knew that Blake would move into a different position nearby and then open fire on the priest, taking the heat back off of her so that she could then move to a different position and open fire. Their plan was simple, one person attacks and draws the attention, while the other person moves into a different location from which they then take the pressure and allow their partner to move into a different position, and so on. It worked for them many times before, and with how they were damaging the priest now, it was bound to continue working for them today.

That assumption proved correct when the priest fell down to its knees, the gun it held dropped to the side. Yang didn't waste any time and moved right up to its head, unloading four rounds from Invective right into the Archon Priest's skull and putting it down for good. Right as soon as the priest died, Yang's ghost, whom she called Raven, appeared next to her.

"It was better off in the Prison of Elders," Raven said in her soothing mature voice.

Pushing the body over to the side so she could make sure it was dead, Yang nodded in agreement. "Yeah, no kidding. You all good Blake?"

"I'm fine," Blake called out as she ran over to Yang, making sure she herself was alright.

"I'll contact the Vanguard," Raven said as Blake reached Yang. "Let them know the Archon Priest is dead."

"Alright, we'll make sure that there's nothing left that can surprise us here and then we can head out," Yang replied to her ghost. She then walked with Blake over to the pod that the Priest came from, looking for anything else that could surprise them. "Don't suppose we should do something about this?"

"Probably, though I'm sure Prince Uldren and his Crows will come to retrieve it themselves, you know how he likes to do this instead of us," Blake replied.

"Well, then he should tell the Queen that she doesn't need our help," Yang said back. "We made a deal with them, and until they say otherwise, I don't plan on letting that go."

"Same here," Blake mentioned. "Plus, it helps having the Awoken at our backs every now and then."

"True."

"Yang," Raven cut in. "Cayde-6 wishes to speak with you and Blake." Once Blake and Yang nodded, Raven allowed the Hunter's mentor to speak up.

"One more Fallen Archon gone to dust, good," Cayde said.

"You could say that again," Blake cut in.

Blake and Yang heard Cayde laugh a bit at Blake's comment. "Sounds like you guys have a fun story to tell. Still, I hate to say this, but if the Fallen found the Prison of Elders, I'm sure we'll hear about more heists like this. Today, we celebrate. Come on back to the tower when you're done, the Queen said she'll send a detachment to pick up the cell, and she says good work." Once he was done, the signal cut off and the conversation ended.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I think we both deserve a drink," Yang said.

"To the tower then?" Blake asked.

"Yep," Yang replied, raising a fist up into the air and the bringing it back down, before pointing right at Blake. "Back to the tower!"

* * *

If anyone could see her face right now, they could tell that she was starting to run out of steam. She had taken a few hits already, but her foe was on its last legs as well. If it wasn't for the fact that said foe was an extremely large, 2 ton Cabal Commander known as Valus Ta'aurc, then most people would say that the fight would be easy. However, as she could attest to, the chain gun that Ta'aurc was using, as well as the rockets that shot out of the pack on its back were nothing short of deadly for even the most battle hardened Guardian.

But she wasn't most Guardians.

She was Pyrrha Nikos, one of the most legendary and successful Guardians to date. A Titan of immense power, she was one of the ones called upon to see to the most dangerous of tasks. But even Pyrrha was having trouble with this, the toll she had taken on her own body just getting here alone told her of the difficulties she faced.

If it wasn't for the Ward of Dawn shield she projected mere seconds ago, she would've been dead, and that would've dealt a serious blow to the Guardians.

Still, Pyrrha wasn't about to just give up. She still had her gun, the Mida Multi-Tool, in her hands, and her body still drew breath. So because of that, she would stand up and fight, no matter how much her body ached, no matter how hard the challenge would be. When Commander Zavala had asked her to go and seek out Valus Ta'aurc and destroy him, she had answered without hesitation, and she wouldn't let him down. If she failed, the Cabal would gain an advantage, and her failure would risk the Cabal coming to earth and destroying the city.

The Cabal of course were a highly militarized alien race, 800 pounds in size and tough as nails. The Cabal blew up planets for getting in their way, and they were conquerers bent on expanding their empire. It was the Cabal that drove humanity off of Mars, destroying cities and setting up their own outposts there. Pyrrha knew going into this fight that she would be facing a tough challenge, but not even she expected it to be this bad.

With Ta'aurc's chain gun firing off a steady rhythm of bullets her way, Pyrrha wasn't in a position to move, else she would be killed. Her shield wouldn't last too long, but right at that moment it was the only thing keeping her alive. Pyrrha needed to time her escape perfectly so she could regroup and tackle the problem again from a different angle.

"Eat this!"

The sudden call ended up working well in distracting both Pyrrha and Ta'aurc, and they looked to see who it was that had come. Upon the sight, Pyrrha was actually glad that it was one of her friends, Nora Valkyrie, that had come in to assist her. Nora, like Pyrrha, was another Titan, and a damn good one at that. Many considered Nora to be a bit of a loon, and carrying a psychotic tendency to her, but Pyrrha knew she just loved fighting all too much.

With Nora firing at Ta'aurc with her Suros Regime, Pyrrha ran from her shield, tossing a grenade in Ta'aurc's direction. The grenade arched as it was thrown at the Cabal commander, until it became close enough that it changed it's direction and magnetically attached itself to Pyrrha's foe. Once it caught Ta'aurc, the grenade exploded and created a second blast that followed soon afterwards, damaging Ta'aurc and sending him reeling back a step. Nora then threw her own grenade at the wall behind Ta'aurc. Once it contacted the wall, the grenade projected a bolt of lightning at the commander that spiked every second or two and shocked him.

Nora took a second grenade and threw it at Ta'aurc's feet, creating the same effect but upwards. With the two grenades working in conjunction together, as well as fire from Pyrrha and Nora, the commander soon found himself falling victim to defeat, and died, hitting the ground and shaking the ground beneath him. The resulting shockwave sent Pyrrha falling to the floor, worn from battle, but Nora, who was much more fresh than her friend, was able to stand up right.

"Aw, it's over," Nora groaned, though Pyrrha could barely hear what she had said.

"We got him," Pyrrha's ghost, Auoko, said to her. "I'll let Commander Zavala know there's one less problem on Mars."

"You go do that," Pyrrha said, unnaturally more quick and unpleasant than she normally would sound. She was tired, something her ghost understood. Rolling onto her back, Pyrrha took a deep breath, trying to let her body rest up a bit before she tried to stand again. If she was honest, she would call herself lucky that Nora had showed up when she did. It would've been the death of her if she was alone when that shield went out, and Pyrrha knew it.

Pyrrha blinked and just like that, Nora was standing over her looking down at Pyrrha's prone form, laying on the ground. "Yikes, you look like you just got tossed into a blender," Nora said to her friend. "If that helmet wasn't on, would you be sweating under there, or would your face be covered in bruises, cuts and blood?"

Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh at Nora's friendly humor. "You could say something like that." Pyrrha reached up, only to have Nora grasp her extended hand and help the warrior to her feet. "I'll say this though, it probably wasn't a smart idea for me to take Ta'aurc on alone. Thanks for showing up when you did."

"Don't mention it," Nora chuckled. "I could tell that this was a problem too big for even you, so I figured, why not follow her and help. Guess it's a good thing I did, though some may say that you're not as good as you say you are."

"Let them say what they want," Pyrrha replied. "If they want to take on the challenges I do, then I wont' stop them. They'll soon see that I'm probably better suited for this line of work."

"Wow, this really doesn't sound like the Pyrrha I know," Nora mentioned. "Usually you're so cheery and eager to prove that you are the best. Where's that Pyrrha?!" Nora reached out and grabbed Pyrrha's chest plate, before shaking the other Titan back and forth. "Where's my friend?!"

Nora's over-enthusiastic attitude definitely helped give Pyrrha a laugh. "Relax, I'm still here," She finally said once Nora stopped shaking her. "I'm just tired and out of energy is all. Besides, I managed to do this almost entirely myself anyway, something most fire teams wouldn't even attempt to do. I'm not worried about what they say since I know that what I've done is tough enough to do anyways."

Before Nora and Pyrrha could continue their conversation, Pyrrha's ghost reappeared. "Commander Zavala wishes to speak with you."

Instantly, Pyrrha and Nora turned their attention to the ghost, waiting for the Titan mentor to speak to them. "Valus Ta'aurc has finally been defeated and the Cabal command dealt a great blow. But in the darkness rising, more fleets will come and more leaders will rise. We must be ready to face them all."

"Understood, Sir," Pyrrha responded.

"I know this must have been a difficult challenge for you, Pyrrha," the Commander continued. "And while I know Nora came and joined you towards the end of the fight, it is still an incredible feat going up against the Siege Dancers and destroying their leader. Good work to you both, now come back to the city and get some rest. You've certainly earned it."

"Yes sir," both Pyrrha and Nora said as the Commander ended the transmission.

"You know, he's right," Nora said, grabbing Pyrrha's attention.

"What do you mean?"

Nora gave Pyrrha a pat on the back, nearly knocking Pyrrha off balance again, though Nora was oblivious to that. "You really did pull off an incredible feat today, and you definitely earned some rest."

Despite nearly being knocked over by Nora, Pyrrha had to agree that she was right. "Yeah, that is true." Turning to make her way out of the base, she waved Nora to her side. "Let's go cash in on that rest then."

* * *

 **AN: Well, now we have introduced all of the characters that comprise of the** **fireteam that travels into the Vault of Glass! First thing I want to get to is what each of the new characters is and what classes they are, what their main weapon is, and what their chest piece is (all chest pieces are exotic in this)**

 **Blake: Bladedancer/Red Death/Luck Rasberry  
Yang: Sunslinger/Invective/Heart of the Praxic Fire  
Pyrrha: Defender/Mida Multi-Tool/Crest of the Alpha Lupi (titan version)  
Nora: Striker/Suros Regime/Armamentarium**

 **Also because I forgot last chapter Ruby: Crest of the Alpha Lupi (hunter version) using Patience and Time, and Weiss: Voidfang Vestaments using The Last Word.**

 **I'm sure people are going to say that Yang should be a titan, and while I can see what you mean, this has been in the works for a while, and I gave a lot of thought into this and saw that Yang would fit better for the subclass she is at right now.**

 **Other than that, this chapter is mostly here to introduce the rest of the fireteam, and show you what they are using and some of the background of the characters.**

 **Hopefully this story is staying up to par and that you guys are enjoying this. Thanks for reading!**


	4. Their Mission

**AN: Early update because I have a long day tomorrow and won't be up at the normal posting time. Enjoy!  
**

* * *

Weiss always loved walking among the halls of the Tower. It was such a beautiful breath of fresh air that she could never get enough of. The Tower stood over the last city humanity had left, the last bastion of their world. Weiss was just one of the Guardians that stood in the defense of humanity while the world around them tried to tear them down.

As Weiss walked across the Tower's main concourse, she pondered everything that she spoke of in the meetings with the Speaker. Many of the Warlocks were called into council, Weiss included, so that they may speak of developments that were found. The Cryptarchs had been hard at work decrypting the information that was gathered for them, and they all had one conclusion.

It was why Weiss was in search of the one person who had brought the information forth to the tower in the first place. Ruby Rose, one of the Hunters, may have just set forth upon a journey that would change the course of humanity's fate.

The information that Ruby and her ghost brought back spoke of a place that was only referred to as the Vault of Glass. The Warlocks had some information to go off of, but it wasn't that much. Only a few references to Kabr, and accounts of his fate from the Hunter Pahanin. But from what they could tell, the Vault held something within that is a potential threat to humanity, and now it needed to be stopped.

Weiss continued past the shipyard and over to the stairs that led down to the one place that Weiss spent the least amount of time in while at the Tower. The Hunter's Lounge. It was a place that was occupied mostly by the Hunters, the Guardians that Weiss felt were often show-offs that loved to just run their mouths. It was rare for a Titan or Warlock to step foot in the lounge, most of them got some pretty nasty glares from the normal occupants. If you were welcomed in, though, it meant that they liked you enough that you could have your fill of their drink when you wished.

Weiss was one of those people that didn't get those friendly stares when she walked in. Most of the time, she would often cause the room to go dead quiet when she entered. This time, she had no cares for whatever was going on, she needed to speak with Ruby immediately, and away from the ears of eavesdroppers.

Once people noticed her, Weiss found it much easier to pick out where exactly Ruby was amongst the crowd. She sat at a table all the way in the back, a place she usually occupied. With her were a couple other Guardians that Weiss recognized immediately, Blake Belladonna, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, and of course, Yang Xiao Long.

Weiss and Yang definitely didn't see eye to eye on many issues. Yang was brash while Weiss was calculating, Yang often talked too much while Weiss kept her words in her head. Overall, she respected Yang's talents, but Weiss wasn't going to admit that she had the knack for being a Warlock.

She put that aside and started to walk through the lounge, listening to the ridiculous story that Nora told to everyone. "So then, once I arrived, I noticed Pyrrha here within her Ward, reloading every single gun she had in her possession, ready to take this beast down. It had withstood so much already and was on it's last legs. Once I showed up, I opened fire upon it and gave Pyrrha an opportunity to move to a much more optimal position. That's when 30 Cabal Legionnaires showed up and started to open fire upon my position-"

"There wasn't any reinforcements, Nora," Pyrrha called out, hoping to let the truth actually be heard.

"Quiet you," Nora countered. "I'm the one telling the story, so shut up and let me finish!"

As Weiss approached the table, Ruby stood up and called out to her. "Hey, just in time for the party!" Ruby said as she brought Weiss a mug of ale. "Why not sit with us and swap stories?"

"I'll pass on that," Weiss condescended. "I do, however, have something that we need to talk about."

"Of course, there's always something going on with you," Yang grumbled. "Why don't you just relax and let her enjoy some peace and quiet for once?"

"First of all, you call this piece and quiet?" Weiss argued. "I can feel my ears shattering right now between the music and Nora's story. And secondly, this is actually revolving around something that Ruby herself brought to not only my attention, but the entire Warlock council, the Cryptarchs AND the Speaker himself!"

Once Weiss let that little bit of information slide, the entire lounge was now intently focused on her, waiting to hear what she had to say. The silence was only broken once Ruby spoke up, her tone completely changed from before.

"What did they find?" Ruby asked, adopting a serious tone since she had a bad feeling about the information in the first place.

Weiss turned around, facing away from Ruby, before responding to her. "Not here, someplace quieter and less populated," Weiss whispered so that only Ruby could hear. "If you wish to wait here and enjoy yourself some more, then be my guest. Either you can follow me and talk now, or we can meet up at my apartment once you're done here."

Ruby really didn't want to leave Weiss hanging out to dry, so she followed the Warlock out the door when she started to walk away. "I'll be back tomorrow, folks!" Ruby called out once she reached the door. "You all have a lovely evening!"

Closing the door behind her, Ruby could've swore that she heard Nora immediately get back to her story before the doors finished closing.

"Why you choose to spend so much time in that place, I will never understand," Weiss grumbled as they walked down to the Tower's elevator. "The music, the alcohol, it's all just too much for me to handle."

"Eh, it's an acquired taste at times, I'll admit that," Ruby began to say. "But, the people are good, and it's a nice place to just relax, if you ask me."

"Though why your sister spends so much time there instead of in the halls working towards the betterment of mankind, I will never know either," Weiss continued. "Regardless, I need to ask you about something." As the two entered the elevator and started to make the descent down towards the heart of the city itself, Weiss took a deep breath.

"What was it that you learned about the Vault of Glass while you were down in the archives on Venus?"

Ruby figured that's what Weiss needed to speak to her about. "Well, not much," Ruby explained. "Qrow found the information within the archives and transmitted everything to you and Winter when you asked us to. I never got a good look at the information myself. What's going on?

"Well, I presented the information to the Warlocks, and we've done some research into this Vault," Weiss said. "It's interesting, there's almost no information on it, but what there is doesn't look good to any of us."

"I guess we can't just go on down to wherever this Vault is and ask to take a look at it. Not that we know who within the Vex is in charge of this," Ruby hummed.

"We wouldn't be asking, at least," Weiss replied.

"Wait, are you saying that we're sending people down to Venus so that they can figure out what's going on in that Vault?" Ruby questioned.

"I am going to be presenting this information that we've uncovered to the Vanguard tomorrow," Weiss mentioned. "I would appreciate it if you were there as well, because you may be the one leading the Fireteam that we're bringing with us. And, since you're wondering, I do believe that they are going to send in a Fireteam for this, and I doubt it will be anything less than a six-person mission."

Do you have any other information for us to use, then?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing else but a few of the texts and stories that we dug up in the archive records," Weiss answered. "I wish there was more to go off of, but nothing we can do about it now."

By that point, the elevator had reached the bottom of the Tower and the pair now walked over to Weiss' apartment within the city. Weiss never really used her apartment too much, she spent so much time up in the Tower that it was rare for her to be down in the streets. Still, Ruby followed the Warlock with her to the apartment and went inside with her.

"So, is there anything else that you could tell me?" Ruby asked once they got inside.

"Well, if you really want to know, then I will, but you'll probably have to stay the night if that's the case," Weiss mentioned.

"Ah, well then, I'm definitely staying over," Ruby said. "Get to spend the evening with my favorite Weissu."

"You are such a dunce," Weiss sighed, hiding her head in her hand both out of embarrassment and to mask the blush forming on her cheeks. She was happy that Ruby was spending the time with her, if what she read and studied up on was true, then things may go bad for them down in the Vault.

* * *

By morning, Ruby had heard all that Weiss could tell her. They had managed to catch some sleep, though the two of them would have prefered a little bit more. Regardless, they were now approaching the Vanguard within the Tower and ready to present their plan to them.

Of course, Ruby was more than fine with letting Weiss do most of the talking. While the information was pertinent to what was going on, Ruby felt as though she didn't have as much of an understanding about it as Weiss did. So, Ruby let Weiss know that she was gonna be taking the lead on the presentation.

Once they reached the Vanguard's hall, Zavala, the Titan's Vanguard, spoke to them immediately. "The Cryptarchs have told us that you found information on a place called the Vault of Glass. Do you have anything that could shed some light on the situation?"

"Well, all the information that you received from the Cryptarch is what we have discovered, however, we wish to investigate this further," Weiss answered.

"And how would you go about that?" Ikora Rey, the Warlock's Vanguard, asked. "Most of the information that we received was presented to us already. What would you be looking for that we don't already have?"

"If I may," Ruby spoke up, surprising even Weiss. "When I first heard about this Vault, my gut told me that there was something wrong with this place, that this was going to be used as a weapon of untold death and destruction. I don't know what we'll find down there, but I do know that we can't just sit around and wait for an answer to come. We need to go down there and get into that Vault, now."

"I agree with Ruby on this one," Cayde-6, the Hunter's Vanguard, concurred. "We don't know what it is, but it could be something bad, and that's enough to get my approval for an op."

"Cayde and I are in agreement on this," Zavala spoke up next. "Should this be a weapon, then we have to destroy it, and if not, then our answers are still given. Ruby, you have permission to assemble your Fireteam. Gather the best you can, and make sure you're prepared. From what we've gathered, you're going to be in for a long, dangerous fight."

Nodding, The two Guardians left the hall of the Vanguard and made their way over to the concourse. "Well, that went better than expected," Ruby concluded.

"That it did," Weiss agreed. "Now all we need is the people for a Fireteam. You have anyone in mind?"

"My sister, first and foremost," Ruby said. "I know you two don't get along, but she's really skilled in a fight, and from what we've gathered, a fight is what we're getting into."

"Fair enough," Weiss conceded. "I'm sure she'll be useful to have with us, even if we don't get along. I'd say so long as we don't run into any problems with each other, then you won't have to worry about us."

"Good, we don't need fighting between the two of you while we're down there," Ruby continued. "Now, I want to bring Blake, Nora, and Pyrrha with us as well."

"Sound's like a good idea, especially Pyrrha," Weiss said. "She's going to be really useful down in that fight."

"Anyway, let's get in contact with them," Ruby said. "Qrow, come on out here."

"Alright, alright," Qrow said as he appeared in front of Ruby. "What's up?"

"Get in contact with Yang, Blake, Nora, and Pyrrha," Ruby said. "We've got some work to do."

* * *

 **AN: Did some of you guys think that this story was dead? To be honest I don't blame you for thinking that way, but I felt like adding some new stuff to the story. Short chapter, I know, but it's basically helping to set up why the people who are actually going into the vault are going. As you guys can imagine, next chapter will be heavily involved with lore on the Vault of Glass itself, as well as the first stage of the actual raid from within the game, opening the door.**

 **Now, as some people have said to me, my opinion on why Yang is a Sunslinger is very much dependent on the connections made with her semblance. The biggest factor that influences this, is the Sunslinger's ability to raise from the dead and come back to life even stronger than when they were gunned down. That is sure to come up in the actual story itself, and it is a HUGE factor into why I chose Yang as a Sunslinger for this, over the new Sunbreaker Titan, a subclass that won't even show up until it would've appeared in the story should I choose to write out all of the other expansions.**

 **Hopefully that cleared some things up for you guys, thank you for tuning in, let me know what you guys thought of the chapter, and I'll see you guys next time I update!**


	5. Get Your Foot in the Door

Ruby and Weiss were waiting in orbit for their companions to join with them. After they had given everyone a quick explanation of what was going on, the others joined without hesitation. None of them had other obligations to deal with, so they were free to go about whatever mission they were asked to help with. It was a surprise to them that they were massing this big of a fireteam for the mission, but Ruby explained that it was necessary to do this.

"This is really going to take all of us to go through, isn't it," Weiss said over the ship to ship intercom. "I can't imagine what we'll encounter down there."

"That's why we need to work together on this," Ruby replied. "I know you and Yang don't always get along, but this isn't about us, it's about the safety of the people we swore to protect.

"I don't see why we wouldn't get along while we're down there," Weiss explained. "Down in the field, I know she is more than a match for her foes. If we're trying to figure out a puzzle or something, so long as she doesn't get on my case, then there won't be a problem."

"Glad to know that you at least respect my abilities, Princess," Yang said as she joined the conversation. "And yeah, you handle the brainiac stuff, I'll handle the fighting. Though I do hope that you'll actually fight while we're down there."

"I was planning on doing just that, you brute," Weiss countered.

"Hah, good to see that you're bringing your a-game with you today," Yang chuckled. "Anyway, is it just us right now?"

"I wouldn't say that," Pyrrha commed in once she approached the others. "All we're waiting on is Blake and Nora."

"Blake should be here soon," Yang mentioned. "Had someone trying to get in contact with us for a job and we have to tell them we can't help right now due to a prior commitment."

"Fair enough," Ruby said. Soon, she detected both Nora and Blake's ships on her radar. "Speak of the devils and they shall appear. You guys ready?"

"Ready as we'll ever be," Nora proclaimed.

"You were awfully vague when you told us about this mission, anything you want to share?" Blake asked.

"First, let's all get going to our objective," Ruby said. "Link up your ships to my own and I'll bring us to our destination, we can chat during the jump over." As soon as she said that, Ruby saw the links start to connect to her ship and she sighed to herself as she knew there was no going back now. They were in for a long and hard fight, but it wasn't something they could back down from. She knew no one would envy being in their position.

Once everyone was linked in, she punched in the coordinates that would lead them to Venus, right next to the Vault itself. She took a second, knowing full well she might be sending herself, and everyone she was with, to their deaths. Accepting this as reality, Ruby initiated the launch and lead the pack to the greatest challenge they were going to face.

As they soared through hyperspace, it was eerily quiet for a few moments before Weiss spoke up. "I think it's time we talked about what was going on."

"That would be a smart idea, yes," Blake rebuked.

"The truth is, this mission may very well kill us all," Weiss said. "How many of you heard about a legend known as the Vault of Glass?"

"I've only heard rumors and tales of it, mostly revolving around a Titan named Kabr," Pyrrha jumped in. "Why are you asking?"

"Because the Vault is a real place, and it looks like there is something going on down there that we need to figure out," Weiss answered.

Silence overtook the fireteam, everyone pondering what it was that Weiss had just said. In this silence, Weiss went on to explain the notes that she had gathered. "For what we know about the Vault itself, only one fireteam has ever gone inside, though the scripts that we have within our archive are confusing to say the least."

"What do they say?" Blake asked.

"Here's the first entry that I could find, written by the Hunter Pahanin," Weiss said as her ghost pulled up the information for her.

"His name was Kabr. He wasn't my friend but I knew and respected him as a Guardian and a good man.

He fought the Vex alone. This destroyed him. In the time before he vanished he said things that I think should be remembered. These are some of them: 'In the Vault time frays and a needle moves through it. The needle is the will of Atheon. I do not know the name of the shape that comes after the needle.'

"'No one can open the Vault alone. I opened the Vault. There was no one with me but I was not alone. You will meet the Templar in a place that is a time before or after stars. The stars will move around you and mark you and sing to you. They will decide if you are real. I drank of them. It tasted like the sea.' That is all I can remember. Pahanin"

"Wait, what does it mean when he says that he opened the vault when no one was with him, yet he was not alone?" Yang asked, curious as to what that meant. "Was Kabr going mad when he sent that message?"

"There's still more for me to share," Weiss said. "It doesn't really say much, but in all honesty, I think it will make much more sense to us when we're down in the vault itself.

These are the last words of Kabr, the Legionless. 'I have destroyed myself to do this. They have taken my Ghost. They are in my blood and brain. But now there is hope. I have made a wound in the Vault. I have pierced it and let in the Light. Bathe in it, and be cleansed. Look to it, and understand.'

"'From my own Light and from the thinking flesh of the Vex I made a shield. The shield is your deliverance. It will break the unbreakable. It will change your fate. Bind yourself to the shield. Bind yourself to me. And if you abandon your purpose, let the Vault consume you, as it consumed me.'

"'Now it is done. If I speak again, I am not Kabr.'"

"God damn," Pyrrha said. "This is getting even more confusing as time goes on. We really do have a mystery on our hands."

"And that's what we're going down there to figure out," Ruby said. Moments later, their jump concluded, and now the fireteam was making their descent towards Venus.

"So this Vault is on Venus?" Yang asked.

"It is, apparently, the Ishtar Collective discovered the location back before the collapse," Weiss said. "They must have been trying to study it for all this time before everything went to hell. I don't know if they've found anything worth note, but it's at least worth a try if they did happen across something."

"No other way to find out then heading down there and looking into it," Blake said. Ruby still had control and brought their ships down into atmosphere, letting her ghost handle the descent while she mentally prepared herself for what was to come. She could just tell that everyone else was feeling the same way as she was. Once they broke through the cloud barrier, she noticed the Vault door sitting there. A giant gateway to what was going to be one of the toughest challenges anyone was going to face to date.

Once they all ejected from their ships, the six of them stared up at the gate to the Vault of Glass. Ruby took a deep breath and stepped forth, leading her team towards the left side of the entrance. There was a ramp leading up to the gate, intricate machinery carved into the mountain and ground around them. Despite the fact that they were all wearing helmets, Ruby could tell from the eerie silence among the group that everyone was nervous.

As they started to make their way up the stairs, they passed through a circle in the ground. Once the first of them stepped in, it surrounded itself in white, triggering something that they couldn't figure out.

Immediately, Vex started to appear before them as if they were intruding on their home. Ruby knew that they would be met with resistance, but this early, even she was surprised by that.

What surprised her even further was one of the Vex machines that had formed where they were previously standing. It had the appearance of a Minotaur, but everyone could tell that it was much more powerful than any of the normal Minotaurs they had encountered before. Leaving no room for debate, everyone pulled out their weapons and shot the Vex that were coming towards them.

"Winter, scan that and tell us what it was," Weiss demanded.

"It's a Vex Minotaur," Winter groaned as she floated towards the machine's corpse. "What else could there be to learn?"

"That wasn't a normal Minotaur, though," Weiss countered. "Something about it was different."

Winter scanned the creature, hoping for some information that Weiss spoke of. Much to her surprise, the Ghost managed to find something of use. "Well, it appears as though this is what the Vex refer to as a Praetorian. A much more advanced and powerful Minotaur that I guess is the main guard of the Vault."

"Alright, guys," Ruby called out. "Everyone make sure your ghosts scan anything that it can. I want all the information we can gather so that nothing takes us by surprise. Understood?" She was met with a chorus of acknowledgement. "Now, Winter, is there anything else you can tell us right now about this place? Why is this mechanism glowing, is it a part of the key to open the door?"

"Well," Winter said as she scanned the platform the fireteam was defending. "It's one of three platforms in the area. The other is on the cliff on the far side of the door, and the last, directly in front of the entrance."

"Another Praetorian coming in from the doorway in front of us!" Nora called out as she took aim with her Suros Regime, ready to fire upon it if it came too close to them. What surprised her most, was that the machine made it's way up the path towards the Vault entrance. "Ok, that was weird."

"Maybe it's trying to prevent us from opening the gate," Pyrrha suggested.

"If I may," Qrow said as he appeared. "I think the key to getting into that door is with these platforms. Don't know what they do, but if we hold all three, then something may happen."

"Sound idea," Ruby conceded. "Pyrrha, you and Yang stay here and defend this platform. The rest of you, follow me to the other locations." Ruby started to run up towards the other platforms, the others hot on her tail. Pyrrha and Yang turned so that they were each facing one of the two directions. As more Vex appeared, they took turns showering them with gunfire, turning them into scrap metal.

Yang had to contend with using her assault rifle for the time being, seeing as how their goal wasn't to let them get close to the plate. Pyrrha was in her natural element, the Mida Multi-Tool she possessed made for quick and accurate strikes against the Vex that came towards them. Each shot that she made landed right in the exposed circuitry that was on their stomach, forcing them to crumble in on themselves almost as soon as they appeared.

"Just like shooting fish in a barrel, huh," Yang said as she cheered during the fight.

"Don't get cocky, Yang," Pyrrha reminded as she turned around and tossed a grenade out at a Vex that Yang lost focus on. "We can't be making mistakes this early in the fight."

"Fair enough," Yang said as she mellowed out a little bit. She knew it was going to be a long fight, didn't need to ruin it this early.

Once Ruby and the others reached the middle, they noticed that the Praetorian that had run up from earlier was standing directly on the platform in front of the Vault door. Blake looked over at Ruby and nodded, letting her know that she was going to take that thing out as best she could. Ruby crouched down, Patience and Time resting in her hands, and she took aim at the Praetorian. Blake maneuvered her way around the side and behind the machine, pulling out a grenade and throwing it onto the platform. As soon as the grenade was thrown, Ruby took aim with her rifle, going invisible after a few seconds. Once the grenade landed and went off, Ruby fired her gun at the beast, taking off it's head.

The thing with the Vex, though, cutting off their head wasn't enough to remove them from the field. As a machine, they could operate without the head, however, they reacted much differently than normal. Blake took this opportunity to leap towards it with her knife out, stabbing the Vex in the back and bringing it down. She then pulled out her rifle, Red Death, and took a couple of shots at it from behind. Now with two platforms under their control, Ruby was confident that they would be able to get inside without any problems.

"Weiss, take Nora and get that last platform under your control," Ruby ordered, noticing that Weiss had already begun to make her way over, Nora following after her. Before they could go anywhere, a group of Hobgoblins teleported in and took aim at them. Weiss pulled out her hand cannon, The Last Word, and opened fire on the Vex that had appeared. She managed to kill most of them, but a few Hobgoblins activated their protective shields, preventing further damage. Once the shields were down, however, they were easy prey for Nora's rifle.

"Thanks," Ruby said over the helmet comms as Weiss and Nora continued on their way.

Nora and Weiss reached the third platform, only to see that another Praetorian was appearing from right in front of a deactivated Vex Gate. They started to unload onto it, only for their weapons to barely punch through the machine's shields. Weiss put her gun away and pulled out a Fusion Rifle instead, charging it up and firing on the Praetorian as it grew closer, forcing it to stammer back a few feet. That gave Nora the opening she needed to throw a lightning punch in its direction, shutting the machine down for good.

With all three platforms now under their control, something was definitely happening. Winter appeared before Weiss with new information. "Looks like Qrow was right," Winter said. "Activating all three platforms seems to have triggered that spire in the middle of the valley." Weiss looked to where Winter had pointed out, the outline of a spire having formed. "It looks like it's going to take a bit for the thing to activate, though, so we might have to hold the line for a little bit."

"You get all that, Ruby?" Weiss asked, hoping the information was passed on.

"I got it, Weiss," Ruby replied. "You also got another Praetorian heading your way from in between us!"

Weiss turned just in time to see the Praetorian sprint towards them. "Understood," Weiss threw out an Axiom Bolt, and watched as it split into the different parts that seeked the Praetorian out and damaged it. Nora then took up the kill with her rifle, hammering the machine until it collapsed in defeat.

Blake and Ruby were having a fairly easy time of things. Ruby sat up on one of the two pillars surrounding their platform, her sniper tearing into anything that tried to come up from their right side, since the trail leading up to them was long enough for her to get a couple shots off at them with ease. From there, she could see Yang and Pyrrha having a relatively easy time dealing with the Vex that were with them, and she knew it was only a matter of time before the door was opened.

She took a moment to look out at the spire, seeing that it was now halfway completed, from what she could tell. "Blake, how are you doing down there?" Ruby called to her companion.

Blake had been watching the path that Ruby wasn't guarding, calling out to Weiss and Nora if the Vex were heading in their direction. "I'm fine," Blake replied. "There really is a lot of them, though. I don't know how much longer we have, but it had better be soon."

As soon as she said that, a couple Vex Harpies flew right up in front of her and were preparing to fire. Blake jumped back, throwing a grenade in her place. As soon as it landed, the grenade did its usual scan of the immediate area before sending a lightning bolt shooting from its center that chained to the other Harpies that were there. "They're getting much more bold now that we're this close to gaining entrance."

"I noticed that," Ruby said. "Everyone alright out there?"

"Yang and I are fine," Pyrrha replied. "Can't get a good read on that spire, though, any word on it's progress?"

"It's almost done," Weiss called out, noticing that the spire had reached the top of the construct. "Should be opening in a minute or two." Right as she finished saying that though, a beam of light shot from the spire, connecting with the door to the Vault itself. "Or it could be finished now."

"Alright, everyone get up here and to this entrance," Ruby said as she continued to take shots at any of the Vex that came for their blood. The first to arrive was Weiss, followed by Nora soon after her. Yang and Pyrrha were coming up from the other side, receiving cover from Ruby as they ran.

Once they reached the entrance, the door to the Vault started to open, but the Vex just kept coming at them. Soon, they were surrounded as the door continued its march, and the fireteam didn't know how they were going to survive.

Pyrrha dropped down her shield, giving everyone a chance to recover while the shield took the brunt of the damage. Nora, however, had other ideas. She ran out of the shield, directly towards the mass of Vex bodies and leapt into the air. Once she was at a perfect height, she propelled herself forward, her hands above her heads as she catapulted herself towards the Vex. Once she hit the ground, an explosion of Arc energy was released around her, as well as a shockwave that went straight towards the Vex that weren't within the immediate vicinity, destroying any that was caught in the blast.

As soon as she was finished, she walked backwards, firing at any of the Vex that were still up. Seeing what Nora had done, Pyrrha and Blake popped out of the shield to give her some covering fire as well. By the time Nora returned to the shield, the door was opened, and the Vex forces that were guarding the entrance had been laid to ruin.

"That was risky," Ruby said. "Even though it was a good move, you should be more careful in the future."

"Eh," Nora shrugged. "It got the job done, and I knew you guys would be able to cover for me pretty easily. Sometimes, you need to take those risks to get results."

"As successful as that was, Nora," Pyrrha spoke up next. "Next time, don't do anything too reckless. I don't want you getting yourself killed on me, understood?" Pyrrha spoke with a fire that not many had seen before, though Nora just chuckled to herself.

"So long as I have you around to keep me safe, I got nothing to worry about," Nora declared.

"Enough bickering," Weiss cut in, ending the argument. "We're only just inside the Vault, and from the looks of this place, we got quite a ways to go."

"She's right," Ruby said. "Let's get moving, we got a long journey ahead of us."

* * *

 **AN: Well, now the action is starting to pick up. We've gotten into the Vault, and there's more information on the Vault itself. For those who haven't played the game, the Vault itself has a lot of lore and story to it. It's gonna get intense and pretty complex. Just wait for it!  
**

 **Thanks for reading and I hope you tune in during the next chapter!**


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